GWR landed into the tardis like club house of the Twickenham team without either a full front row or a kit. Their hospitality knew no bounds when they provided us with both a prop and an extension to the kick off time. They told us at the same time that if the scrums went uncontested then they would prefer it to remain fifteen v fifteen, I wonder would we show the same level of decorum if the boot was on the other foot??... Mind you we showed enough generosity towards them in the end...

Anyways an update on our line up; the very late Tom Hardiman, Gary Wynne & Twickenham's finest Ralph(?) made up the front row. Paul Hamblin & John Mcdermott made up the best looking second row pairing GWR have had in years (possibly ever). The back row had two debutants in George (was he Polish?) and Mike O'Sullivan. Number eight was the record breaking legend that is Mark Ruttledge making it forty years in a GWR jersey & still one of the best tacklers there. Tom Dunkinfield and Mossy (Eamonn Colleran to his mother) made up the half back pairing. The centres were Brendan "BOSH" O'Shea and our soon to be departing American marine mad Max Saldana. The back three were; Danny Wallace & Danny Dwyer on the wings & Chris Brown at full back all three shared the same attributes of fleet feet & slow thought.

The game started with them kicking to us and a clean catch from John Mc that was then taken into contact and retained. The lack of a warm up and then a cold rain shower brought out a load of basic errors in the first ten minutes as GWR misplaced both passes & tackles. The new call in the scrum caught our svelte second rows by surprise and the sharpness of the referee regards the tackler on the floor also meant we were reined in by the whistle. Twickenham scored in this period and the victory dance (I was informed after this was "gangnan" style) seemed to galvanise the lads on. Twickenham had a mix of mean old heads up front and young lads in the backs, truth be told it was like a scout camp with the old lads in the forwards.

A few fight them on the beaches speeches ensued from Hamblin & Ruttledge, as Twickenham kicked their points, to the extent that it looked like we had warmed up at the restart. Was it the ten minutes of game time after the long absence or the lad’s oratory skills that made a difference?

Some decent passages of play followed and we camped in their half. Twickenham's defence conceded penalty after penalty but no points as we drove for the line. We must have had ten tap & go penalties, next week we will go for the posts because we threw those points away Saturday. Again good ball retention but just in time support work meant "ball back" but no "go forward" as we couldn't generate momentum.

The backs started to shine the same time as the sun, as when the rain stopped the lads got underway. Brendan O'Shea made good ground each time we had possession, he has lost weight since the last time I saw him and that seems to have lifted his pace with the timber gone. He was very good in broken play Saturday. Mad Max also battered through but we were probably guilty of holding it too long as the wings didn't see much of the ball.

Before the break we reverted to type as the forwards kept the ball (screaming at Tom, who made some nice breaks over the course of the match) until it became apparent we weren't going forward (when they became fatigued); then it went to the backs as a last resort. That did nothing for the girls as the ball was generally slow and poorly positioned and their support were breathing like they had chest complaints.

Once we made the breakthrough for the first, with Paul Hamblin sneaking over following some good work from Mark Ruttledge, the pressure then started to tell and the second came quickly with a blast from mad Max following a break from Bosh. The third was after the half time break and was a fall over the line by Paul Hamblin. Mad Max was held up again over the line before Danny Dwyer then did his goose step to slip in for the fourth & by that stage (with mossy nailing everything) we were 28-7 up with twenty minutes to go and some of us thought it was over....

The solid prop that had been lastminute.com loaned to us had left at half time (if he wants game time we would gladly look after him), he was changed with Dan "size eight" Schwarz who moved to hooker as the scrums went to uncontested.

Two substitutions were made just before their restart after our last try: Stephen O'Rourke came on for Gary Wynne and Luke kelly changed for John Mc as Danny Wallace moved into the forwards.

To say we collapsed would have been an understatement as in short succession we leaked four tries, three of which were converted.

The depth of depression on sidelines were apparent as children started crying. Tom Hardiman got a knock on the head with five minutes to go and came off limping to allow John Mc back on. A brief flurry of action ensued as GWR won back the resultant kick off and bashed through towards the line. A penalty was given due to killing the ball and mossy (previously perfect off the tee) slipped in front of the posts to put the kick wide.

GWR heads went down as Twickenham's twenty two drop out was lashed up the pitch. Two silly penalties were given up in quick succession as they made it to and then broke our line... Not happy at the finish.

The debutants performed well. George the Pole didn't speak a word and seemed to be at the bottom of every ruck. Mike O'Sullivan tackled hard, was forceful at the breakdown for someone so small and made up for George's lack of speech by giving out instructions. Mike is going to be working on his kicking from hand at the same practice session we shall be sending Mr Dwyer to (he of the fancy footwork and bad shank). Chris Brown is amazingly lighter on his feet than he looks (which is amazing as he only looks about six stone in weight) but craic aside he was elusive: whenever he got the ball he always stepped around any chasing runners except when he was watching the ball bouncing.... So when the balls are being kicked at practice by the other lads we now know who will be catching them without the balls touching the ground first... Luke Kelly, who came on as a substitute, tackled fine for someone that doesn't like to mess his hair & was especially unlucky to be on the end of Dwyer's clearance kick which highlighted his presence on the wing. I wish to apologise to Dan Schwarz here as I couldn't comment on how he did when I had my head in my hands for the last twenty minutes after he went into the pack (through no fault of his) and probably restricted from view as he was between Tom Hardiman & Paul Hamblin. Next time he will get a special mention.

Ball retention was definitely one of the better points of Saturday's not so stellar performance. There was also some good ball carrying from Brendan O'Shea, Paul Hamblin, Mark Ruttledge, Danny Wallace & Danny Dwyer.

It was a definite pity we didn't utilise our back three more but Saturday showed we can, as our American friends say; “make the plays” (start of the second half there was some good rugby) but we “gotta work on our defence” (oh my it was woeful).

As you lads all know I don't like to use this as an opportunity to criticise people (otherwise I would have brought up Mossy's tap & drop penalty) but we need to improve the tackling something shocking. I saw someone bull through our pack at one stage which is a complete & utter disgrace. But it wasn't only there the problems were for at times we looked porous across the board.

However for my mind the season started Saturday: things can only improve and one thing is for certain there is no shortage of things to work on.

This week’s man of the match was tight with Hamblin's double and Brendan runs but it goes to our try scoring, train crash tackling centre Mad Max Saldana who showed some sleight of hand in his offloads to go with the head-hunting hits. He is going off to Korea with the other ten thousand Americans enjoying the UN sanctioned/sponsored beer up/sentry duty on the 38th parallel. Max; enjoy the dogs in Korea and I hope you get that plush embassy post you are looking for.

Two questions arose post Saturday's game.
The first came as I went home in the car bemoaning the collapse & looking for excuses. I said that to make so many substitutions was foolhardy and the Mrs replied "yes, but who would have thought Gary Wynne going off would have made that much of a difference??"

The second question came via a text from a night club at twelve o'clock that night when Stephen O'Rourke wanted to know was he a "loose head or a tight head?"

Great Western Railway RFC

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